Modern day travelers can cross the globe, achieving travel itineraries never dreamed of by travelers in the ancient world. One problem associated with travel has remained throughout the centuries. Travelers need to remain comfortable in order to endure their journeys. Numerous improvements in early travel involved padded compartments or seats, and hanging straps, used to lessen the jostling experienced by travelling over rough roads.
Modern travel is far more comfortable, due to improvements in road and rail travel, as well as the availability of airplanes. In fact, travelers can even sleep during travel on most modern devices. To this end, cushion systems, such as travel cushions and pillows, have become devices of interest to modern travelers and device manufacturers.
For example, US patent application number 20060123548-2 discusses an adjustable pillow. Based on the hydraulic effect of Pascal's Principle that an enclosed fluid under pressure exerts that pressure throughout its volume and against any surface in which it is contained, the device is a multi-chambered hydraulic pillow using differently shaped and sized, variably elastic internal chambers combined with a plurality of internal valves which automatically control, communicate, balance and contain the flows of the liquid and differences in pressure and resulting changes in the external dimensions provided by the changes in the variably elastic flexible chambers.
Since fluid or air compartments used alone or in combination to form a cushion can be either too firm or too squishy, other efforts have been directed to cushions with movable material, such as, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,691,352 to Wang.
The Wang patent discusses an improved adjustable pillow that includes a first pillow body which has a first opening and a second pillow body disposed at a selected location in the first opening. The first and second pillow bodies have a plurality of stuffing materials held therein. A user may adjust the pillow to a height and curvature desired by shuffling the stuffing materials between the first and second pillow body and then wrap and fold the second pillow body to form a stable state for use. The second pillow body may be used to support the user's neck to conform ergonomics and to enable the user to get the most comfortable sleep.